


Two-Faced

by TerrifiedAristocrat



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Infidelity, It's hella sad I'm so sorry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-16
Updated: 2014-01-16
Packaged: 2018-01-09 00:02:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerrifiedAristocrat/pseuds/TerrifiedAristocrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kill your double.</p><p>Or- slowly fall in love with your double. Ok, fine. Do that. See if I care.</p><p>See where it gets you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two-Faced

Did he intend for this to happen? Hell no. Honestly Cecil would be happy if he’d never even heard of Strex Corp, if it was just him and Carlos and Night Vale for the rest of eternity, perfectly static and wonderful. In fact, it was supposed to be like that really. But then… well.

Things never did go according to plan. Or maybe this was part of the plan, throw along some handsome devilish radio host to draw Cecil’s attentions away, like some siren sitting on a rock in the ocean. Kevin wasn’t exactly… sirenish, not in the same way Carlos was, but he certainly had an allure to him. (Once you got past the eyes. And the mouth. But in the end, those were the things that drew Cecil in the most)

As Strex Corp became more prominent in Night Vale, Kevin showed up more in Cecil’s life. He was at the radio station, leaning against building on the corner of Main Street, waving. Showing up at Cecil’s favorite coffee shop, with an extra biscotti. At first it was scary, unnerving, seeing a mirror image of himself smiling with awful pointed teeth and laughing and telling jokes in a too-bright, too-cheery voice that Cecil slowly loved and slowly craved and slowly felt resonating deep in his bones. It was an accident, because Cecil was perfectly happy with Carlos and the two of them had a steady, supportive relationship. Kevin didn’t make Cecil burn like Carlos did. Kevin hurt, Carlos seared. Kevin felt bad and good all at once, Carlos felt blissful.

But pain had an allure to it, just like Kevin did.

The first night Cecil was unfaithful he laid in bed on goldenrod sheets, his skin feeling like it was going to split open and his nerves doing some sort of dance that only occurred once every century when the stars were aligned just right and the moon spilled over disemboweled livestock. He thought it was guilt, but the guilt had its own pain- something low and thudding and aching at the bottom of Cecil’s lungs, something that made his stomach twist and coil when he’d come home to find Carlos sitting in his bed, looking lost and worried as he held some papers limply in his hands.

“Where were you” he asked.

“Out,” Cecil lied, because he couldn’t bring himself to lie in anything else but one word answers.

“I was worried,” Carlos remarked, frowning as Cecil collapsed onto their bed. “I still am.”

“I’m fine,” Cecil assured Carlos weakly. “Just… tired.”

Carlos nodded and put his papers away and took good care of Cecil, as well as taking some skin and hair samples with him then and again in the morning, for analysis. What Carlos was hoping to find, Cecil didn’t know. For a moment he wondered if it was possible to determine infidelity through cellular structure, that Kevin somehow had imprinted himself in Cecil’s very DNA instead of Carlos.

Cecil couldn’t stop. He tried, he really did. He told Kevin hurtful things, told Kevin that they shouldn’t be around each other, that it was unprofessional and unethical and all of his protests turned into hastily heated kisses in the back of the radio studio while Cecil’s supervisor watched with a distinct look of approval on his face- all of this made Cecil wonder again if Kevin was sent to ruin him, to destroy him, and if somehow… somehow he’d made a terrible mistake by letting Kevin touch him, letting Kevin’s influence sink into his bones. The pain came every morning now, every time Cecil woke up with his skin swelling and splitting and his mouth clamped shut in a wide, painful smile that made his teeth clench and hurt. Carlos would wrap his arms around him and murmur something to him in Spanish and he’d eventually relax- it was as if Carlos was the cure to whatever thing ailed him. Every time Cecil would be cured he’d look at Carlos and Carlos would look terrified. At first Cecil thought Carlos was scared of him, but then after some assurances and soothing kisses that made everything in Cecil just relax and tense up all at once, Cecil realized it was something else.

“Have you done anything different?” Carlos asked, looking worriedly at Cecil in between peering at his microscope in his lab.

“No,” Cecil lied.

“Please Cecil.” Carlos said quietly, his lips twisting into a frown. “Anything. Anything out of the ordinary.” Cecil’s heart broke at how desperate Carlos sounded. It sank when Carlos sighed, scooted away from his microscope and put his glasses straight onto his eyes. “Please give me something Cecil, because it’s starting to point to Kevin and I don’t want that, for your sake.”

Cecil froze, and it felt like the air in the room was too cold to breathe. Carlos shifted in his chair and sighed.

“I know.” he mumbled quietly. Cecil now felt like his whole body was being ripped to shreds, like every single cell in his body was pulling itself away from its neighbors violently, like he’d explode into some sort of super nova leaving Carlos alone with nothing but a mangled corpse for a boyfriend- a dirty, rotten, no good cheating boyfriend. “Cecil please start breathing again you’re going to pass out.”

Cecil obeyed, sucking air into his lungs with difficulty. Carlos got up and helped Cecil into a chair- the radio host felt dizzy and sick and all over awful. Carlos took some more skin samples and feverishly jotted notes down.

“Look we can talk about you and Kevin later, that’s not my biggest worry. I’m not mad.” Carlos assured Cecil in a low, calm voice but Cecil would be damned if he’d believe that because anyone would be angry in Carlos’ situation, anyone. So either Carlos was lying or Carlos was a saint sent from heaven, an angel that actually existed and stood clothed in human flesh before him, worried and unshaven and scared. “Cecil you’re dying.”

“What?” Cecil croaked out, his voice sounding not like it should but like a wheezy, pathetic imitation of what it should.

“Something’s poisoning you- I’m no doctor, but I know when something’s wrong. I’ve sent some of your tissue samples to the local hospital and have been working with Dr. Manequez- she’s not that bad once I get past her insistence that botulism isn’t deadly- but there’s something in your environment that’s killing you.” Carlos paused. “I don’t want to sound like a jealous lover but I think it’s Kevin.”

“… You have every right to be a jealous-”

“Cecil we’re not going to talk about this right now you don’t have long to live.” Carlos told Cecil, his voice jumping in pitch and intensity. “I… I don’t want our last conversation to be a fight about who you’ve been sleeping with.”

“Well then why did you bring Kevin up,” Cecil rasped finally.

“It’s… metaphysics, I don’t understand them in the same way that you do but Kevin’s electromagnetic signature must be… uh, opposite of yours. She used words like ‘aura’ and ‘psionic wavelength’ but what it boils down to is the more time you spend around Kevin, the more he poisons you. If he’s the cause, I mean if there’s something else-”

“No. It’s him.” as soon as Carlos said the words ‘psionic wavelength’ Cecil knew exactly what he was talking about, exactly why he’d been drawn to Kevin, exactly why he was dying. How could he have been so dense? Josie’s angels themselves even warned him: Kill your double. “Kevin’s just like me, except… opposite.”

“Two opposing forces neutralize each other,” Carlos mumbled.

“If they’re the same strength,” Cecil muttered quietly, dejectedly. His shoulders slumped- did this really mean what he thought it meant? “Kevin… Kevin has all of Strex Corp behind him. All I’ve got is Night Vale, and-” Cecil stopped suddenly, his throat closing in on itself.

No.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

He tried to breathe, but his vision blurred and he slumped across Carlos’ lab table while the man, the gorgeous amazing saint of a man desperately called the ambulance. Something was knocking at his lab door,and when Carlos opened it Kevin was there, along with some men in white suits with yellow ties.

Cecil wanted to help but everything hurt so much! His skin was in agony, his muscles burned, his lungs didn’t want to work and his throat was stuck together. He could even vaguely hear a whistling sound of the air fighting to escape his throat- it was a gross, sickening sound. It was almost as sickening as the crunch that followed Carlos’ fist as he planted it in Kevin’s face, almost as sickening as the sight of the gun pressed to Carlos’ head. Cecil’s eyes slid shut for a moment, and then open again in time to see Carlos in possession of the gun, red smeared prettily on his lab coat- oh Carlos was so gorgeous, so wonderful, so brave so strong so smart so perfect…

“Cecil don’t leave me.”

“Cecil no Cecil please please no just breathe just breathe come on Cecil CECIL DAMMIT-”

Why was he yelling so much?

Big questions tonight listeners.

Big questions.


End file.
